This is the Business English Podcast Episode 307.
Don't have specifics?
How to stay general in English at work.
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.
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Hey there, Aubrey. How's it going today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you? Well, Aubrey, what are you up to today?
Oh, you know, this and that.
This and that. Well, what exactly do you mean by this and that?
I mean, I love this really good question about these like general things that we say when we don't want to give details for whatever reason, right?
And this often here, the podcast we start, I'll share what I'm actually up to.
But sometimes we answer this, oh, you know, this and that.
We don't want to give details or there's not time.
Or there's just maybe you just aren't in the right scenario where people want to hear it.
You don't want to bore people.
There could be a lot of reasons why you might not give details, right?
But we have to know how to do that, how to not give details.
I love that. That's why we have so many of these chunks that we use to stay general because there are so many situations when it's not appropriate to give a lot of detail.
Yeah, guys, we are going to get into a great topic today.
Often we talk about how to get more specific, but today is just the opposite, which is also a language skill.
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All right, cool. So Aubrey, where are we going today with a question?
Yeah. So this is interesting.
We got a question on our Instagram account and we'll go ahead and read that.
I'll read it. It's from Aisha who said, hi all, thanks for teaching this expression.
So she was commenting on one of the Instagram posts and then said, could you do an episode on how to talk about things in a non -specific manner?
For example, expressions like this and that, x, y, z, so and so, such and such, and in x time.
Thank you. Such a great question.
I saw this and immediately it was like, this would be great for business English because that's often when we don't have the time to go into detail.
You don't have the time or maybe you don't want to take the time to think of examples.
That's another time when we may not go into that kind of, we might use an x, y, z, I find myself using x, y, z or x, right?
We use that a lot on the podcast because we're sharing like phrases like x, y, z and instead of giving a bunch of examples, we're sort of saying you could put anything here.
So let's start with number one, Aubrey.
What is the first thing we could say?
Yeah. The first one is this and that means general information.
Often in daily conversations, we'll say stuff, but this and that is a little more professional, a little more up -leveled stuff is just so informal.
It's kind of teenager -y, right?
Stuff, right? No, this and that is a little better for business.
For example, happy hour was fun last night.
I was chatting with Maria about this and that and found out that we have a lot in common.
So I don't need to hear exactly what you were chatting about, right?
Right. And for two reasons here, first of all, it's not the focus of the conversation, right?
So I'm not going to go into all the details of what we were saying.
And also that might be a conversation where I don't feel like I should share everything that Maria shared with me.
So I just say this and that.
Love that. And such and such is the next one, which feels a little more up -leveled for some reason to me.
I'm not sure why. Yeah.
Interesting. It is very similar to this and that, right?
It sort of means the same as stuff, but it does feel a little more up -leveled, such and such.
You might say, Mark and I were talking about such and such when we got an emergency phone call.
And you're sort of, often I feel like I say such and such when I'm about to give the details and I realize I don't have time for that.
They don't want to know the details.
I'll just say such and such.
I like that. I like that.
And then the third one, which we use a lot, I find myself using a lot is XYZ, as we said, right?
Similar to this idea, it implies that information should be replaced with where that XYZ is.
You would put in the information.
Exactly. Because it's either not important or there are too many examples or maybe it's unknown.
I've heard people say XYZ company because they're sort of saying this would apply to any company.
They might say, he said he was fired by XYZ company, but he didn't say why.
And there it's like unknown.
I don't remember the name of the company and it doesn't matter.
So I'm going to replace it with XYZ.
Yeah. And here's a question, Aubrey.
Why is it just the last three letters of the alphabet?
Could we also say we were talking about ABC company?
What do you think? If you say that, I'm going to think the company is actually called ABC company, right?
Because it's idiomatic.
This is very much we use XYZ to replace information that doesn't matter or is unknown.
And if you use random three letters, they're going to think that's the company name in that example.
So it's just XYZ, right?
So go with that. Remember that these are chunks, right?
We can't grab any random letters of the alphabet.
So just to clear that up.
And we might replace it just the same as this and that.
You might say like, oh, we were talking about XYZ and he got an emergency phone call.
And I could say we were talking about this and that we were talking about such and such.
They all just sort of mean things, just something that I'm not going to go into detail about.
Nice. Or he said he was fired by XYZ company, but he didn't say why.
So getting into the name of the company or it doesn't matter.
You might even know the name, but because it doesn't matter, you're just throwing in XYZ.
Yes, I love that. So good.
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Okay, Aubrey, we are back with number four, so -and -so.
Very, very common, but this only refers to human beings.
This means a person, you're replacing it with so -and -so.
Okay. So you might say, did you go out with so -and -so again last night and you're asking someone about, someone they might be dating, but you don't know their name or it doesn't matter.
Maybe you're implying that you don't care what their name is.
Yeah, you say so -and -so.
Right. Is it implying a little bit of disrespect towards that person?
Not necessarily, but sometimes, right?
It depends for sure.
There's going to be context here.
There might be intonation.
Maybe they already told you that this person has stood you up or ghosted you.
And so you already have about impressions.
You're like, do you go out with so -and -so again?
You're definitely implying like, I don't know if you should be dating this person.
I love that. I love that.
So there's definitely some loaded meaning behind this phrase in some cases.
So we want to just pay attention to that and know that when we choose that one, you could be loading on some meaning that you may not want to.
Exactly, because you're replacing someone's name.
In almost all cases, if you know the name, you're going to share it.
It's not quicker to say so -and -so.
So when you're talking about people, almost always you'll say their name.
If you say so -and -so, either you don't remember their name or you're implying that their name's not worth remembering.
So this one is the one to be the most careful with, I think.
Or the phrase, what's his, what's his, what is it?
Oh, did you go out with what's his name?
Right. That would be a comfortable name.
What's her name? How would you go out with what's his name?
That's very similar to so -and -so.
Like you're just saying, his name's not worth remembering.
Exactly. Okay. What's his name?
I do feel like what's his name is a little more, you're just admitting you don't remember it.
I agree. What's his name?
I just don't remember.
I think it's a little more neutral.
Like it's less consequential, this person or something.
I agree. I agree. Yeah, for sure.
What would be number three, number five?
What would be number five?
So this is in X time, which is, this is what our listener said.
I hear more in X amount of time, which is like an unspecified period of time.
I agree. If this project isn't completed in X amount of time, we'll need to set a deadline.
Yeah. So this is sort of a chunk that the more I was trying to think of examples and I was looking online to see just in X time.
We do sometimes, you know, of course we'll replace X with specific time in three hours in, we might say in some time, right?
I haven't done this in some time and that's a more general, like it's been a long time.
But when I hear actual X with time, I hear it with that chunk in X amount of time.
Yeah. This might happen with planning when you're looking at your quarter ahead.
You don't know exactly how long it's going to take to build a course, for example.
And you might just broadly be kind of planning out the calendar and you'll, you'll fill in those blanks later, right?
And until then we just say an X amount of time, meaning it's unknown, not necessarily important yet.
We're not at that stage of determining how much time.
All right. I love it.
So Aubrey, role play time.
We are chatting before a Monday meeting begins.
And I guess we are, are we in the meeting room now or sitting down?
We are aware. So we're in a conference room, but the meeting hasn't begun.
Let's imagine it's just you and I were there a couple of minutes early and that would be awkward with a coworker to just both be there in silence, right?
You're going to strike up a conversation and this is how that might look.
I think these are the moments that our listeners really want to work on really.
And this is how you build the relationships, the in between time, right?
Absolutely. And that's when you're pretty semi -formal.
You're still at work.
It's still a coworker, but you're not, you know, you're going to be a little less formal often, even if you're not talking about, you know, work.
All right. So let's see how that semi -formal conversation looks.
Okay. How was your weekend?
I wasn't feeling well, actually.
So I just stayed home and did this and that.
Oh, sorry to hear it.
A lot of people have been sick lately.
Everyone's coming down with XYZ bug.
Luckily, we usually feel better after X amount of time.
Well, you didn't miss much.
There wasn't a lot going on this weekend.
So I just did errands and such and such.
Okay. Nice. Nice. So let's go through this.
Again, probably wouldn't see these many kind of fill -in -the -blank expressions in one conversation.
But today we did for the sake of example.
Right. This is one of those where you can tell because it's a role play.
We want to show you how they might come up in conversation.
This would probably seem strange if we're using all of them together in this meeting.
Yeah. Probably someone would come in the room and say, are you guys okay?
What's going on with you?
Why are we being so general?
Are you being PG? Totally.
So I said, I wasn't feeling well, actually.
So I just stayed home and did this and that.
Right. So it doesn't really matter.
Maybe I cleaned my house a little bit or whatever, did art projects or something, watch TV.
All the kind of deals that you're not going to want to go into, right?
When you're sick, you're probably not doing anything really productive that you're excited to share about.
It's like, I just did this and that, which maybe means watch TV.
I wasn't feeling well.
Yeah, for sure. And then you said, Aubrey?
Yeah. So I said XYZ bug.
So I'm saying like, everyone's coming down.
And it's the same as saying, everyone's coming down with something.
Everyone's coming down with bugs.
And I might say XYZ bug just because it's like this could stand in for any illness.
Yes, exactly. And then I said, luckily, we usually feel better after X amount of time.
So, you know, after filling the blank, two weeks, three days, whatever you want.
Exactly. This is sort of just a general way to say like after some time, after a bit of time, right?
It's another way of being really general about it.
You got it. And then you said at the end, what'd you say?
I said, oh, you didn't miss much.
I didn't do much either.
I just did errands and such and such.
And this is like, you know, I'm just doing errands.
I'm not doing anything.
I'm not going on fun hikes and doing anything that I would be excited to tell you about.
So I just replace all those boring details with such and such.
Yeah. It's almost like I would be bored if I gave you the details.
I would be bored myself.
If I gave myself to tell you the errands and boring things I did.
Yeah. So just say such and such or this and that.
And then we move on.
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Because the truth is here for the takeaway, I mean, not every single moment of our lives is riveting and groundbreaking.
We're not always climbing Mount Everest or curing cancer.
Like, it's just not that sometimes hopefully we are.
But, you know, and this is a great way to connect to admit that you're admitting that, like, not every moment of my life is that super exciting.
So instead of sharing all of those boring details, I'm like, I was doing this and that.
Right. Kind of brings you back down to a normal level.
I mean, people could be a little times intimidated if you're always coming in with these huge stories, you know, maybe just be human and just say, if you had a boring weekend, I didn't do much.
You know, there's nothing wrong with that.
Right. So you're likely to have that more in common with the person you're talking to.
True. Plenty of moments where they're not doing much either.
And that's normal. That's human.
Yeah. So the idea here today is it's okay to be normal.
And this is how we articulate it.
That is connection.
I love it. So good.
Absolutely. Yes. I'm excited for you guys to use these phrases to stay general.
And I know we've said this before, especially at work, like avoid that TMI, right?
Those details when there's either not time or they're not interesting enough.
And we just replace them with something more general.
All right. Thanks for being on the microphone today.
I'll break guys hit follow on business English and leave us your review.
What did you think about today's episode?
Let us know. Let's get specific in our ratings and reviews and let us know what questions you have for next time.
All right. Yes. Awesome.
Love it. Thanks, Lindsay.
All right. Take care.
Bye bye. Thank you for listening to business English, a podcast just for you.
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